Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hybrid optical devices which significantly concentrate and change direction of light rays, and to various applications for such hybrid optical devices, including optical cloaking systems. More particularly, the present invention pertains to such hybrid optical devices which may be manufactured using commonly available materials, and which may have a very large aperture for receiving light therein and a very short focal lengths by structurally dividing the aperture into sections or arrays. The sections or array components individually compress and redirect portions the light entering the aperture so that the focal length of the overall device desirably becomes very short, and so that the hybrid optical devices may be formed in very small/compact sizes in comparison to conventional optical devices. The optical can be economically manufactured in a wide variety of shapes and sizes for use in a wide variety of applications, including optical cloaking systems, scenery projection, ultra compact telescopic systems, ultra compact magnification systems, ultra compact solar concentrators, etc.
Description of the Background Art
In applicant's prior application U.S. Ser. No. 13/714,770, applicant has disclosed several novel embodiments of hybrid optical devices in the form of an optical cloaking system which can optically cloak/hide objects in the visible light spectrum such that the objects appear invisible, and which can be efficiently and practically manufactured using common optical materials in the form of prisms, lenses, mirrors, and the like. Such optical cloaking system bends and/or compresses light such that, within the system, the light passes around a cloaked space in which an object is disposed, and a person viewing a larger space including the cloaked space will not see the object, but will see a background behind the object in full view substantially undistorted in relation to the rest of the larger space.
Such optical cloaking system as disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 13/714,770 is a significant improvement over previously known optical cloaking systems/devices which are also discussed in U.S. Ser. No. 13/714,770. However, applicant's previous optical cloaking system remains to be improved, especially in terms of the size and structure of the hybrid optical devices used therein. For example, applicant's previously disclosed hybrid optical devices have a relatively large longitudinal (depth) dimension, e.g., it is typically longer than the height dimension and increases as the height dimension of the devices increase. This creates practical limits for use of the previously disclosed optical devices because for some applications they become so large that they are difficult to manufacture, transport, and handle. Moreover, such optical cloaking system is but one useful application of the hybrid optical devices according to the present invention.
Thus, while there are known hybrid optical devices which maybe usefully applied as optical cloaking systems and the like as disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 13/714,770, these remain to be improved on in terms of size, ease of manufacture and handling, etc., as well as in terms of other useful applications for same in addition to optical cloaking.